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Judge rules smoking ban can go to vote  

Citizens have the right to refer South Dakota's expanded smoking ban to a statewide vote, Circuit Judge Kathleen Trandahl ruled Thursday. Now it's up to her judgment whether sufficient signatures are valid on the petitions to put the referendum on the Nov. 2, 2010 ballot.

The trial over those signatures heads into the second and presumably final day this morning at the Hughes County courthouse, with the petitioners standing 17 signatures short of the 16,776 minimum necessary to make the battle. . . .

Under test is South Dakota's doctrine of substantial compliance regarding election laws. More than 8,000 signatures were rejected by Nelson. Lawyers for the three sides in the case spent Thursday afternoon battling over why signatures were disallowed.

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